Client Alert: Minimizing the Costs and Risks of E-Discovery Through Arbitration
May 01, 2013
Designing and implementing a cost-efficient and effective dispute resolution strategy is an important issue for clients. This often involves using arbitration clauses, especially when doing business internationally and the alternative to arbitration is litigation in a less than friendly local court system. Other times, clients are doing business in the United States and prefer to use a jury-trial waiver in their contracts, where permissible, because it eliminates the risk of a jury trial, but provides more detailed and meaningful appellate review than arbitration. Lately, however, clients seem to be focusing on arbitration as a mechanism for avoiding the costs and risks of e-discovery in the United States. Given the interest in this topic, this article suggests that arbitration may be a good way to minimize the costs and risks of e-discovery in the United States court system, and that specifically addressing e-discovery in an arbitration clause is the recommended approach.